López Obrador Before Congress: The Defendant Turns Prosecutor

As Mexico City Governor Andrés Manuel López Obrador showed today, sometimes that greatness is thrust upon men and women by adversity and by the ill will of those who oppose them.

López Obrador arrived this afternoon at the Mexican national Congress and sat quietly on stage through a presentation of accusations against him by one of President Vicente Fox’s assistant attorneys general, Carlos Javier Vega Memije, who repeated, again and again, that the proposal to take away López Obrador’s right to run for president was a matter of “the state of law,” because his city administration supposedly violated a judge’s order for eleven months in 2001 and 2002. The prosecutor spoke loftily about “ending impunity” and building “a Mexico of laws.”

But when the prosecutor’s allotted 30 minute speaking period ran out, Vega Memije kept prattling on about the importance of not breaking rules. He was shouted down by many legislators from the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD, in its Spanish initials) bench and concluded his remarks by shouting shrilly over the din.

Next it was López Obrador’s turn. He took the podium and commented to the gathered congressmen, beaming a smile: “You’re going to have to make a desafuero for attorney Vega Memije for violating the rules.”

Here are some excerpts from his speech... And then he lashed into the speech of his political life, decrying “the falsehood of these charges… I have not violated the law… and it has never been my intention to cause damage or harm anyone.” He reviewed the facts of the case against him, the sloppiness of the attorney general’s office and a judge that issued an order on behalf of a supposed landowner who did not even own the 200 square meters to be used for a hospital access road, the fact that he never built the hospital road, and other irregularities in the accusations: “This case is plagued by falsehoods,” said the Mexico City governor and leading presidential aspirant for 2006. “I would ask you, where was the damage or the harm? We are speaking of 200 square meters of land there and an attempt to create a street to a hospital. The damage and the harm is being done by those who accuse me.”

“They don’t judge me for violating a law, but for the way I think and what that represents for the future of Mexico,” he said, launching into the political underpinnings of today’s proceedings. “There are two competing projects at stake: One on behalf of globalization, the other on behalf of the nation. They don’t like that I give support to the most humble and forgotten people and they don’t want that applied at a national level. This is what is at the core of the matter.”

He attacked “those who think they are masters of this country, the leaders of the PRI and the PAN parties, who want to sell our petroleum and electric industries, who have put our financial institutions into bankruptcy, who have created a nation plagued with inequality. They have delivered this country into the hands of the greediest minority. They want to tax food and medicines but they exempt their protectors from paying taxes. They have ruined the productive capacity of this country and obligated millions of Mexicans to go to the United States to earn a living.”

“They are afraid,” said López Obrador, “that the people will choose a true change. Theirs is a cowardly fear.”

“I accuse President Vicente Fox Quesada of dishonorable acts with the proposition of tying up the national institutions to fight a political battle,” he said, the accused turning prosecutor.

López Obrador continued:

“I accuse the chief justice of the Supreme Court, Mariano Azuela, of subordinating justice to the temporary interests of the powerful when he attended a private meeting with the president, forgetting that it is his duty not to participate in abuses but to protect people from them.”

“Those who accuse me try to justify their efforts in the name of the law. All authoritarian acts hide behind legality. They are making themselves ridiculous…

“They are going to put me in jail for trying to open a street to a hospital, a grave crime. Is that the 'state of law' they are calling for? What state of law is there for those who can’t buy innocence? The majority of judges don’t have the red-blooded courage to resist the pressures of the executive branch. It is about money and those who want a country that is exclusively for the wealthy.”

Noting that the assistant attorney general had quoted the early 20th century Mexican president Francisco Madero, López Obrador reminded the Congress of the true history (one published here on The Narcosphere on March 2nd) about how the Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz, fearing Madero’s 1910 presidential candidacy, sought a desafuero against Madero then over an accusation of invading a property, and how Madero was put in jail. And how his enforcer, General Victoriano Huerta (the intellectual author of the assassination of revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata) made similar desafuero attempts against Madero, and against social leader Pino Suarez, later.

The Mexico City governor explained that history is repeating itself, “and, not because I want to make a personal attack, but because you should know the history, it was the great grandfather of (Fox government minister and architect of today’s desafuero) Santiago Creel who served Porfirio Diaz as a minister when those acts were done. And it was Mr. Creel’s grandfather who served Huerta in the same acts.”

Looking directly at the PRI legislators’ section, López Obrador then told another forgotten story of Mexican history: how the father of the leading PRI presidential candidate Roberto Madrazo, the late Tabasco governor Carlos A. Madrazo, was also attacked with a desafuero for a supposed fraud, but really for supporting a candidate for president against the instructions of party leaders. “He went to jail for nine months,” recalled López Obrador, also a Tabasqueño, “and was later released when a new administration came in.”

“I am proud to be accused by those who fooled Mexico by promising a change but who then conspired with (disgraced former president) Carlos Salinas de Gortari to keep the same forces in power as always. We have a so-called ‘government of change’ that has done nothing!”

“I am used to struggling,” concluded López Obrador. “And with the support of men and women of good faith I will continue. I will not plead special legal protection. I will protest peacefully with all those who plead justice and freedom… I will not negotiate behind closed doors to settle this… We will engage in peaceful civil resistance.”

“But you,” he said, scanning the legislative hall, “have already received your orders, and you will act under those orders in spite of that you call yourselves public servants. Your conduct will still have to pass public opinion. Those you obey are the most tenacious violators of the law…

“And history will judge us: You and me both.”

Then, to chants of “No Estas Solo!” (“You are not alone!”) from the minority PRD bench, the Mexico City governor announced he would forfeit his scheduled 15 minutes for rebuttal, leaving the assistant prosecutor there with no one to spar with, and walked, head held high, to the back of the congressional hall, out the doors, and back into the city.

The Congressional debate over the desafuero continues as I type. But in decades of covering and attending all kinds of legislative forums, I don’t remember ever seeing a politician show such poise and confidence in front of a lynch mob of corrupt legislators. He may be removed from office tonight, but anyone watching the power and force with which he turned his defense into a prosecution knows: this man is not going anywhere. Andrés Manuel López Obrador had greatness thrust upon him today. This man is here to stay and emanates a sense that he is ready and able to conquer every last obstacle the rich and powerful throw in front of him.